Our Book of the Month is So Much for That by Lionel Shriver

Lionel Shriver's award-winning novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin, dealt with teen violence and maternal ambivalence. Her latest novel, So Much for That, touches on the impact of illness on relationships. Read our interview with this talented author!

Lionel Shriver’s novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin, written from the perspective of a woman whose son commits a Columbine-like school massacre, won the Orange Prize, a UK-based prize for female authors of any nationality writing in English, was a Good Morning American book pick and a New York Times bestseller.  In The Post Birthday World, she explores the questions of “What if?” when it comes to life-altering choices.  And in her latest novel, So Much for that, she takes on the healthcare system in the US.  Yet, although she explores the failure of our healthcare system, So Much for That is much more; it is a novel about the impact of illness on relationships, and of friendship and love.  Read our interview with this talented author.

CommitmentNow.com:  Your latest book, So Much for That, is about the American health care system, the impact of illness on a family and the value of human life.  What inspired you to write this book?

Lionel Shriver:  A few things lead to my writing this book.  I have long been exasperated with the U.S. healthcare system.  And then a very close friend of mine dies of Mesothelioma [a disease which afflicts one of the characters in So Much for That].  Following that, I read an article in the New York Times about how people in the U.S. are going bankrupt due to medical costs – even with health insurance.  And I thought, there’s a book in all of this. 

CommitmentNow.com: So Much for That features two families, each with a member suffering from a rare disease; Familial Dysautonomia (FD) and Mesothelioma.  You describe the diseases, the symptoms, the meds and the “special effects” of the meds in great detail.  Other of your novels offer details on snooker, professional tennis and the Troubles in Northern Ireland.  Do you engage in research as you write a novel?

Lionel:  I do a fair bit of research for all of my books.  I used to do most of my research before I began writing, but now I do it as I go along.

CommitmentNow.com:   Your novels have tacked topics such as maternal ambivalence, envy, the question of “what if” when it comes to potentially life-altering decisions, and now, the value of a human life.  Where do you get the idea for your books?

Lionel:  I follow the news closely, and most of my ideas come when the public news and private (my own experiences) intersect.  For example, with So Much For That, I have been reading about the U.S. healthcare system, and then my friend died of Mesothelioma.

Right before I wrote We Need to Talk About Kevin, I was as close as I was ever to come to having a child (which, in retrospect, was still not very close). Kevin was a thought experiment. What if I felt the same dislike for my own kid that I sometimes feel toward someone else’s?

The Post-Birthday World is an exploration of the implications for your life, depending on the man (or, of course, woman) you end up with. It’s a parallel universe book, all hinging on whether the protagonist does or doesn’t deliver one kiss.

CommitmentNow.com:  Your characters are not perfect and often do things which are unwise or offensive.  Do you think those kinds of flawed characters are more interesting to write about?

Lionel:  I think that flawed characters are more interesting and more realistic.  I’m interested in what is wrong with people.  The perfect person is a non-person; character includes a person’s warts and bumps.  Without fault, there is no character.
I like to craft characters who are hard to love. Characters have to be interesting more than nice, and often interesting, to me, is not very nice.

CommitmentNow.com:   Your books are brave – and the endings are not always happy.  Do you think that is because you deal with topics in an honest way?

Lionel:  It’s the way I think.  There is no point writing what everyone else is saying.  I have to feel a lack of something being said in order to feel motivated to write about it. 

CommitmentNow.com:  You were born in the US, but have lived outside this country for over 20 years.  Yet, many of your books, including So Much for That, take place in the US and comment on US culture and institutions.  Does living abroad give you a perspective that allows you to examine American culture more clearly than if you were still living in the US?

Lionel:  I think living abroad gives me more of a capacity to see the U.S. as one more country.  I return every summer, which keeps me current on what is happening.  If I didn’t come back every year, I don’t think I would be able to write about the U.S. 
Although I have been living abroad for over 25 years, I still think of myself as an American writer, and am regarded in the U.K. as an American writer. 

CommitmentNow.com:  You published your first novel at age 29.  When did you first start writing?

Lionel:  I’ve wanted to write since I was seven years old.  I studied writing in college and wrote a practice novel in graduate school, where I earned my MFA.  After graduate school I wrote a novel, The Female of the Species, which was the first one to be published.

CommitmentNow.com:   What is your favorite part of the writing process?

Lionel:  My favorite part is after I have the first draft written; I know that the book already exists.  I find starting a new book anxiety producing.

CommitmentNow.com:  How long does it typically take to write a book?

Lionel:  It usually takes me about two years from inception to submission.  So Much For That took about a year and a half.

Lionel Shriver is a novelist whose previous books include Orange Prize–winner We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Post-Birthday World, A Perfectly Good Family, Game Control, Double Fault, The Female of the Species, Checker and the Derailleurs, and Ordinary Decent Criminals. She is widely published as a journalist, writing features, columns, op-eds, and book reviews for the Guardian, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Economist, Marie Claire, and many other publications. She is frequently interviewed on television, radio, and in print media. She lives in London and Brooklyn, NY.

To purchase So Much for That, click here.